Lin'an Never Night

Chapter 886 Returning to the Court

Your Majesty, recently, Huang Xu, the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, has been in contact with the Emperor too frequently.

Your Majesty, when the Emperor meets with Minister Huang, he often dismisses his attendants.

Your Majesty, the Emperor has recently been paying close attention to the inner court, and has selected some burly and strong eunuchs to come to his side to watch them wrestle.

Yang Yuan's brow twitched as he listened to the messages from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Eunuchs.

This kind of drama... I know it all too well!

Little Xuanzi, is that you?
Duo Zi, Yu Ye, and Liu Yanran were speechless after hearing this news.

My husband is not ruthless enough; he is unwilling to use the entire world and all its people as pawns in a game of chess.

They were initially filled with regret.

As it turned out, the Emperor did for his husband what he wanted to do but was unwilling to do.

This is certainly a good thing for their plans.

They are also very confident in Yang Yuan's current control over the inner court.

In particular, Yang Yuan himself was also a master of martial arts.

Nevertheless, they repeatedly reminded Yang Yuan to be careful.

In the palace, one is not allowed to drink a drop of water, eat a single snack, be summoned to the inner palace, or see the emperor alone...

They were terrified that Yang Yuan would be in trouble.

Despite repeated instructions, Tako was still worried and arranged for Yazawa Kanon and Tsubaki Kana to go and act as two servants in the government office, accompanying Yang Yuan at all times.

Therefore, Yang Yuan returned to the capital to govern.

At this time, Emperor Zhao Dun received news of the great chaos in Western Xia, with various tribes massacring officials and rising in rebellion.

Zhao Dun was so shocked by this incident that he became somewhat dazed.

When Yang Yuan entered the palace, the young emperor's mood worsened upon seeing him.

When Zhao Dun summoned his close ministers for a meeting, he became somewhat uneasy.

He would suddenly blurt out a sentence, which was about a topic that everyone had discussed half a day ago.

Huang Xu immediately sensed something was wrong; he had recently noticed that the emperor was somewhat absent-minded.

He did not suspect that Zhao Dun had a "brain disease" because of this. Vice Minister Huang simply thought that the Emperor was a little restless because of the shock of his marriage.

Even so, if the ministers all realize this, it will be very disadvantageous for the emperor.

Huang Xu immediately stepped forward and said, "Your Majesty has recently been suffering from a stroke, which has taken a toll on your energy and inevitably leads to fatigue."

Since Your Majesty is unwell, we request that you return to the inner palace to rest. Once we have a plan, we will then request Your Majesty's review and decision."

Zhao Dun had been restless ever since he saw Yang Yuan enter the palace.

Every time Yang Yuan smiled at him, he felt a chill run down his spine.

Yang Yuan glanced at him, and he felt that Yang Yuan wanted to draw his sword and kill him.

Yang Yuan held the teacup and played with it, while he was also worried that Yang Yuan might smash the cup as a signal.

This made the young emperor extremely uncomfortable.

At this moment, when Huang Xu spoke, Zhao Dun felt as if he had been granted a pardon and immediately nodded in agreement.

"Ah, yes, I... I am feeling somewhat exhausted. My ministers, please discuss this matter and, once you have a plan, report back to me."

After saying this, Zhao Dun immediately got up and hurriedly left, accompanied by his personal eunuch.

After leaving the Hall of Diligent Governance, Zhao Dun breathed a long sigh of relief.

Now, whenever he sees Yang Yuan, he feels that Yang Yuan wants to harm him.

Yang Yuan's gaze towards me was filled with murderous intent!

No, I must strike first!
After thinking for a moment, Zhao Dun did not return to his palace to rest, but instead went to watch the sumo wrestling matches of the strong and powerful eunuchs he had carefully selected.

The current situation facing the imperial court is that there has been no progress in suppressing the rebellion in Liangshan Prefecture;
Of the four routes in Sichuan and the Three Gorges, only Kuizhou Road and Lizhou Road have not yet experienced major civil unrest.
The most affluent areas, Chengdu Fulu and Tongchuan Fulu, are already emitting smoke everywhere.

On the other side of the Western Xia Road, the various tribes of Western Xia rebelled and took control of the Hetao Plain;

Liu Qi's garrisoning of the Hexi Corridor effectively divided the former Western Xia into two.

It cannot be denied that all of this began when Yang Yuan was stripped of his military power and returned to Lin'an. The promising situation in Shaanxi was almost completely lost.

Then, Zhao Qiongong, eager to gain merit, underestimated the enemy and advanced recklessly, losing half of his troops and retreating to Dasanguan.

The Liangshan Rebellion was a result of a series of reforms by the imperial court during Yang Yuan's time as a retired prince.

In other words, Yang Yuan isn't pursuing the matter now, but if he wanted to settle accounts, then...

The defeat in Shaanxi was due to flawed military decision-making.
The upheaval in Western Xia was caused by officials seizing power and oppressing tribal leaders.
The unrest in Liangshan Prefecture was caused by the conversion of oasis mines from private to state ownership...

Who made all these decisions?
This person needs to take responsibility.

Zhao Qi, who had already abdicated, had paid the price of losing the imperial throne.

Should Zhao Qi bear all the responsibility?

When Yang Yuan suddenly recovered from his illness and returned to court, these ministers were already filled with apprehension.

They were worried that Yang Yuan would be held accountable.

In fact, that was exactly what Yang Yuan originally planned.

At this point, holding him accountable would not be enough to wipe out his entire opposition.

But he did not want the world to become more corrupt, so he wanted to eliminate his political enemies in the court for himself.

Therefore, he would rather leave some hidden dangers than allow the national policies implemented by these people to be reversed.

However, at this time, he learned about the story of "Xiao Bao and Kangxi".

Huang Xiaobao and Zhao Kangxi are plotting to kill this treacherous minister.

Now that we have this knife that they've offered us willingly, and the opportunity to purge all our political enemies in the government,
Yang Yuan wouldn't mind waiting a little longer.

Officials such as Chen Kangbo and Chen Junqing felt somewhat relieved to see that Yang Yuan showed no intention of holding them accountable for their mistakes in governance, and was only focused on resolving the chaos among various parties.

They had already prepared to sacrifice a few to save the king; if the King of Yan questioned them, they would send a few out to protect the majority.

Since Yang Yuan didn't intend to do so, they temporarily abandoned their thoughts of conflict and began to figure out how to deal with the rising smoke signals everywhere.

Yang Yuan said, "Although the situation is currently unstable and war is raging everywhere, it is not yet out of control."

Chen Kangbo's spirits lifted: "What brilliant plan does Minister Yang have?"

Yang Yuan chuckled: "There's no brilliant plan. It's just a case of locking the barn door after the horse has bolted, or praying for rain to put out a fire."

Chen Kangbo blushed. He was also wholeheartedly devoted to the Song Dynasty, though he couldn't deny that he had his own selfish motives.

But if he had known that things would turn out this way, he would never have insisted on his own opinion.

Yang Yuan cleared his throat and said, "The root of the chaos in Sichuan and the gorges lies in the shortage of money. And the shortage of money originated from the chaos in Liangshan Prefecture."

Therefore, once the unrest in Liangshan Prefecture is resolved, resolving the issues in the Sichuan and Shaanxi regions will be much easier.

Chen Kangbo couldn't help but ask, "What strategy does Prime Minister Yang intend to use to deal with this?"

"Soothe!"

"Yang Xiang, the Liangshan barbarians have won several matches in a row and are becoming increasingly arrogant."

If we want to quell the rebellion in Liangshan Prefecture, wouldn't appeasement instead of conquest at this time only embolden them?

Won't they take advantage of this?"

"The cost will, of course, be much greater than the previous appeasement."

Yang Yuan glanced at them indifferently: "However, the Liangshan barbarians have no ambition to dominate the region, so it is not impossible to appease them instead of attacking them."

Huang Xu asked, "Then, what should be done about the chaos in Western Xia?"

Yang Yuan said decisively, "First quell the rebellion in Liangshan, then resolve the chaos in Sichuan and the gorges."

Prior to this, the imperial court could not send troops to Western Xia, so General Liu Qi could be ordered to guard Hexi.

As for the Hetao region, it's already in such a state, how much more chaotic can it get?
Once the imperial court has freed up its resources, then we can deal with Western Xia.

With Liu Qi guarding the Hexi Corridor, quelling the rebellion in the Hetao region was not difficult.

However, one must take things one step at a time, and walk one step at a time. Let's address the root of the problem first.

P.S.: I'm not feeling well, and I have a lot of chest tightness, so this chapter will be a bit shorter.
(End of this chapter)